We all have one thing in common – procrastination.
After all, it is human nature to want to put something off – either because we’re scared of failing, judgment, rejection, or we are perfectionists.
However, we’re not going to pretend we have the answer to overcoming procrastination. My simple suggestion is to gain some inspiration and motivation to help you start the task you’ve been avoiding.
This article will highlight some motivational procrastination quotes, procrastination quotes for students, funny procrastination quotes to tickle you, and perfectionism and procrastination quotes.
Table of Contents
Motivational Procrastination Quotes
1. “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” Pablo Picasso
2. “Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.” Anne Frank
3. “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” Karen Lamb
4. “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Abraham Lincoln
5. “Nothing will work unless you do.” Maya Angelou
6. “Your Life Is Happening Right Now: Don’t let procrastination take over your life. Be brave and take risks. Your life is happening right now.” Roy T. Bennett
7. “If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.” Ivan Turgenev
8. “Success is not obtained overnight. It comes in installments; you get a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow until the whole package is given out. The day you procrastinate, you lose that day’s success.” Israelmore Ayivor
9. “Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable are the kind who do nothing.” William Feather
10. “Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.” Michael Landon Jr.
11. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain
12. “Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal, while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.” Herodotus
13. “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” William James
14. “Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing.” William Arthur Ward
15. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” Jerry West
16. “Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.” Victor Kiam
17. “If you have goals and procrastination you have nothing. If you have goals and you take action, you will have anything you want.” Thomas J. Vilord
18. “It’s a job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish.” J. R. R. Tolkien
19. “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” Sydney Harris
Procrastination Quotes for Students
20. “The scholar’s greatest weakness: calling procrastination research.” Stephen King
21. “The really happy people are those who have broken the chains of procrastination, those who find satisfaction in doing the job at hand. They’re full of eagerness, zest, productivity. You can be, too.” Norman Vincent Peale
22. “Perhaps the most valuable result of an education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.” Thomas Huxley
23. “Overcoming procrastination is not, I repeat, not about cramming additional work into your day … overcoming procrastination is about simplifying your life to make space for the activities that matter most.” Richie Norton
24. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” Unknown
25. “The momentum of continuous action fuels motivation, while procrastination kills motivation.” Steve Pavlina
26. “How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.” Fred Brooks
27. “Set a timer and compete to beat the clock to conquer procrastination.” Monika Kristofferson
28. “Procrastinator? No. I save all my homework until the last minute because then I’ll be older, and therefore wiser.” Unknown
Funny Procrastination Quotes
29. “You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. What mood is that? Last-minute panic.” Bill Watterson
30. “If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.” Rita Mae Brown
31. “I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do – the day after.” Oscar Wilde
32. “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams
33. “I’m a big believer in putting things off, In fact, I even put off procrastinating.” Lisa Kleypas
34. “My mother always told me I wouldn’t amount to anything because I procrastinate. I said, ‘Just wait.” Judy Tenuta
35. “A perfect method for adding drama to life is to wait until the deadline looms large.” Alyce P.Cornyn-Selby
36. “The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.” Thomas Sowell
37. ”I’m not procrastinating. I’m proactively delaying the implementation of the energy-intensive phase of the project until the enthusiasm factor is at its maximum effectiveness.” Unknown
38. “Procrastination taught me how to do 30 minutes of work in 8 hours and 8 hours of work in 30 minutes.” Unknown
39. “I remember reading somewhere about an organization called Procrastinators Anonymous. I think they had been in existence for some years but had never gotten around to having a meeting.” Unknown
40. “I’m not a procrastinator. I’m just extremely productive at unimportant things” Unknown
41. “The problem with a lot of people is that they procrastinate as if tomorrow doesn’t have some tasks of its own.” Edmond Mbiaka
42. “The best part about procrastination is that you are never bored, because you have all kinds of things that you should be doing.” Unknown
43. “You know you are getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate.” Unknown
44. “The worst form of procrastination is reading a procrastination quote, feeling the guilt and not doing anything about it.” Unknown
45. “I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” Jerome K. Jerome
46. “Procrastination isn’t the problem. It’s the solution. It’s the universe’s way of saying stop, slow down, you move too fast.” Ellen DeGeneres
Perfectionism and Procrastination Quotes
47. “Lack of confidence, sometimes alternating with unrealistic dreams of heroic success, often leads to procrastination, and many studies suggest that procrastinators are self-handicappers: rather than risk failure, they prefer to create conditions that make success impossible, a reflex that of course creates a vicious cycle.” James Surowiecki
48. “Perfectionism is the mother of procrastination.” Unknown
49. “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” George S. Patton
50. “Perfection’ is man’s ultimate illusion. It simply doesn’t exist in the universe…. If you are a perfectionist, you are guaranteed to be a loser in whatever you do.” David D. Burns
51. “A pursuit for perfection is the most leading cause of procrastination in artists.” Neeraj Agnihotri
52. “Perfectionism and procrastination have such a fine line. You say, “Well I want it to be good. I want to be perfect.” But what you’re really doing is not doing your work. You’re putting off showing up and being visible because then you’re going to be judged, and it might suck.” Jen Sincero
53. “We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.” Erica Jong
54. “The breeding ground of fear is procrastination and inaction. We overcome them not by preparation, but by taking action.” Debasish Mridha
55. “Don’t let perfectionism become an excuse for never getting started.” Marilu Henner
56. “The most dangerous way we sabotage ourselves is by waiting for the perfect moment to begin. Nothing works perfectly the first time, or the first fifty times. Everything has a learning curve. The beginning is just that—a beginning. Surrender your desire to do it flawlessly on the first try. It’s not possible. Learn to learn. Learn to fail. Learn to learn from failing. And begin today. Begin now. Stop waiting.” Vironika Tugaleva
57. “If you wait for things to be perfect, you walk away with nothing. Just jump in and get started.” Jennifer Ritchie Payette
58. “Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘someday I’ll’ philosophy.” Denis Waitley
59. “We must understand the need for perfectionism is a corrosive waste of time, because nothing is ever beyond criticism. No matter how many hours you spend to render something flawless, somebody will always be able to find fault with it.” Elizabeth Gilbert
60. “Too many people spend too much time trying to perfect something before they actually do it. Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you go, and fix it as you go.” Paul Arden
Final Thoughts
After reading these procrastination quotes, the next step is to make a concerted effort to start and finish your pending tasks. Don’t simply feel inspired for a minute and then procrastinate.
You’ve just built up the task to be more challenging in your head. Start, and it will flow.
If you liked these procrastination quotes, check out: